Read up on setuptools and the Python Package Index, aka the Cheeseshop. Setuptools hasn't yet been adopted as the one true packaging format by all library creators, but it gaining acceptance.
That's one thing I do like about Ruby; it wasn't always this way, but RubyForge + GitHub (Oh, GitHub!) + RubyGems combine to make for a very fluid feedback mechanism and make good use of The Cloud.
The result is that new libs get announced, distributed, tested, and improved by rabid Rubyists rather... rapidly.